Berkeley Mulls Proposal to Provide Free Medical Marijuana

By
Al Jazeera
on July 4, 2014

If approved, measure would require dispensaries to give away 2 percent of all medical cannabis to low-income patients

If a new proposal passes a final City Council vote next week in Berkeley, California, poor and low-income medical marijuana users in the city will no longer have to worry about how to afford their next high.

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to change its laws to require marijuana dispensaries to give 2 percent of the amount of cannabis they sell each year to low-income medical users for free.

The 2 percent would have to be the same quality of medical marijuana a dispensary would sell to paying customers.

The change in rules would also allow Berkeley to open another dispensary, bringing the city’s total number to four.

“Basically, the City Council wants to make sure that low-income, homeless, indigent folks have access to their medical marijuana, their medicine,” Berkeley City Council Member Darryl Moore told CBS San Francisco.

“We think this is the responsible thing to do for those less fortunate in our community,” Moore added.